DUNEDIN, Fla. — Last spring, David Phelps felt a pain no pitcher wants to feel as the ball came off his fingertips.

Pitching the final inning of a spring training game for the Seattle Mariners in March, the right-handed reliever put a little extra heat on his fastball facing a 2-2 count. Immediately, his elbow didn’t feel right. He threw one more pitch, got a groundball to end the game and walked off the field thinking worst-case scenario.

“I had a pretty good idea that I blew out,” he said, standing by his locker in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse nearly a year later.

It turned out his instinct was correct. The MRI came back showing an 80 percent tear of his ulnar collateral ligament. He was shut down for the year. About one week later, Phelps underwent Tommy John surgery. In the season before he was set to hit free agency, Phelps would not be able to throw a single pitch.